er the riots of '66 and took command, and that would have
sent me to the penitentiary. There were regular officers in the deals
beside me, and they got wind of it and tried to bribe her; and she'd cry
all night and mope all day, and swore she'd leave me unless I cut loose
from the whole business and restored what I'd made. By God, I couldn't!
I'd spent it! I was no worse than three or four others who had eyes open
to their opportunities--two of 'em in the regular army now--bang-up
swells, and at last I couldn't stand it and got to drinking, and then I
lost my card nerve and the money went with it, and it made me desperate,
crazy, I reckon; for one night when I came home drunk and she made a
scene I suppose I must have struck her, and then she took sick and got
delirious, and I was horribly afraid, and so were my partners, that
she'd give up the whole business; so they got me leave of absence. They
saw me aboard the steamer for New York. My money was running short, and
they gave me enough to place her in a sanitarium on the Hudson and get
her sister with her, and then I came back, and bad luck followed. I was
strapped when the old man told me I'd have to go out and join my
regiment, for he'd got me appointed in the regulars. Why, some of
Sheridan's officers when they saw my name in the papers, wrote to stop
it, but it was no use. The military committee in congress couldn't go
back on Mr. Cadger, and he daren't go back on my father. But they got me
sent out here to be as far away as possible; and yes, there were three
deserters from Cram's battery aboard the steamer, so I learned, and one
of them, the man you call Higgins, who was betrayed to Lieutenant Blake
by another deserter just as bad as him, was staking the other two, for
he had money in plenty until after I had done with him. What my life's
been out here you know well enough; same as it was in New Orleans--all
luck and plenty at first, then all a collapse. I'm ruined now. When I
had hundreds and thousands I helped everybody who wanted it. There are
men in Yuma and Tucson now whom I set on their pins, and they give me
the cold shoulder. All that offer to the major was a bluff. They've got
all my money. I haven't a cent anywhere, and so far as I'm personally
concerned I don't care. If there was no one on earth dependent on me I'd
as lief you'd shoot me to-morrow.

"But, gentlemen, there's the rub. I own it now. There's my poor wife and
her sister. I've lied to them b